Sergio Garcia finally has his major championship.
Make that two majors.
The second is his very soon wife-to-be — Angela Akins, who we all knew from her time at the Golf Channel. A spunky beauty from Texas who started her college golf career at TCU then transferred to UT.
This is a happy ending for both Akins and Garcia.
This will not be Akins’ first marriage. She was previously married to Ross Hamann, who had a couple of cups of coffee on the Web.com Tour, but really didn’t have a future at it. Today he’s in financial service sales in Dallas, he’s in Akins’ rear-view mirror as they say in Texas.
Up ahead is Sergio Garcia Fernandez, the prodigy, the confusing talent who has struggled amid success. He was supposed to win majors earlier in his career. He didn’t. He was the puzzling El Nino, who Paddy Harrington accused to bad golf course behavior and etiquette 10 years ago but that too is in Sergio’s rear-view mirror.
In 2013 Garcia was hot-and-heavy with a German beauty named Katharina Boehm, who was a collegiate golfer at the College of Charleston. That ended in 2014. No one ever accused Garcia of being lucky in love.
Now he is, he and Akins.
Guess you can call this one a story-book ending but this isn’t the ending, it’s the beginning.
Since Akins entered Garcia’s life, he won the AT&T, the old Byron Nelson, last year in Dallas. She shared that victory moment with him. In February, he collected the giant coffee pot in Dubai. Sergio Garcia was winning again, like he’s supposed to.
Garcia was greeted by Akins’ family as he came off the 18th green Sunday, right after he finally made a birdie putt to end Justin Rose’s hopes.
They were no doubt jazzed to have their future son-in-law next to be fitted for the Green Jacket. Garcia admitted they have influenced him.
“Marty (Angela’s father) is a very, very positive person, outspoken, a very, very confident kind of guy,” Garcia said of his future father-in-law. He also called Angela a “calming influence.” And, oh by the way, did we mention that Akins’ cousin is All-Pro quarterback Drew Brees of the New Orleans Saints?
Positive influences can make a world of difference in life, certainly a world of difference in a game like golf, a non-team sport where it’s just you against the world. A good team makes a huge difference and now Garcia has some Texas teammates. Garcia has homes in Spain and Switzerland. Bet here is there will be some house-hunting in Texas sooner than later.
If there is such a thing as the perfect tour wife, Barbara Nicklaus set the standard. She could write the “Manual For PGA Tour Wives.” When you look at Akins, she looks every bit the perfect fit for Garcia. As a player, she understands how difficult the game can be. As a broadcast journalist, she’s comfortable in front of a camera and understands the scrutiny players are under these days.
She’s also smart. Was on the Big 12 All-Academic golf team for the 2007-2008 season.
“At the end of the day, I could see there were a lot of people happy and pleased for me,” Garcia observed after his Masters victory.
He’s right, who wouldn’t be?
He had his run as a spoil-sport years ago, the “Woe Is Me” Sergio who felt cursed and unlucky and blamed those unseen forces for four runner-up finishes in majors without a win.
This new Sergio isn’t that guy.
Garcia’s new mantra should carry him to perhaps more major victories, but that’s not the most important thing as far as he’s concerned.
“Winning a major was not going to change my life. You’re never going to be able to please everyone. Enjoy what you do, be kind to people.”
By the way, Garcia and Akins will tie the knot after the Open Championship in July.
A major win for both.
